In Hesiod's Theogony, Aphrodite is born off the coast of Cythera from the foam (aphros) produced by Uranus's genitals, which his son Cronus has severed and thrown into the sea. In Homer's Iliad, however, she is the daughter of Zeus and Dione. Plato, in his Symposium 180e, asserts that these two origins actually belong to separate entities: Aphrodite Ourania (a transcendent, "Heavenly" Aphrodite) and Aphrodite Pandemos (Aphrodite common to "all the people"). Aphrodite had many other epithets, each emphasizing a different aspect of the same goddess, or used by a different local cult. Thus she was also known as Cytherea (Lady of Cythera) and Cypris (Lady of Cyprus), due to the fact that both locations claimed to be the place of her birth.

Etymology

Hesiod derives Aphrodite from aphrós (ἀφρός) "sea-foam",[4] interpreting the name as "risen from the foam",[5][4] but most modern scholars regard this as a spurious folk etymology.[4][6] Early modern scholars of classical mythology attempted to argue that Aphrodite's name was of Greek or Indo-European origin,[6] but these efforts have now been mostly abandoned.[6] Aphrodite's name is generally accepted to be of non-Greek, probably Semitic, origin,[6] but its exact derivation cannot be determined.[6]

Scholars in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, accepting Hesiod's "foam" etymology as genuine, analyzed the second part of Aphrodite's name as *-odítē "wanderer"[7] or *-dítē "bright".[8][9] Michael Janda, also accepting Hesiod's etymology, has argued in favor of the latter of these interpretations and claims the story of a birth from the foam as an Indo-Europeanmytheme.[10][11] Similarly, Witczak proposes an Indo-European compound *abʰor- "very" and *dʰei- "to shine", also referring to Eos.[12] Other scholars have argued that these hypotheses are unlikely since Aphrodite's attributes are entirely different from those of both Eos and the Vedic deityUshas.[13][14]

A number of improbable non-Greek etymologies have also been suggested. One Semitic etymology compares Aphrodite to the Assyrian barīrītu, the name of a female demon that appears in Middle Babylonian and Late Babylonian texts.[15] Hammarström[16] looks to Etruscan, comparing (e)prϑni "lord", an Etruscan honorific loaned into Greek as πρύτανις.[17][18][19] This would make the theonym in origin an honorific, "the lady".[17][18] Most scholars reject this etymology as implausible,[17][18][19] especially since Aphrodite actually appears in Etruscan in the borrowed form Apru (from Greek Aphrō, clipped form of Aphrodite).[18] The medieval Etymologicum Magnum (c. 1150) offers a highly contrived etymology, deriving Aphrodite from the compound habrodíaitos (ἁβροδίαιτος), "she who lives delicately", from habrós and díaita. The alteration from b to ph is explained as a "familiar" characteristic of Greek "obvious from the Macedonians".[20]

Origins

Near Eastern love goddess

Late second-millennium BC nude figurine of Ishtar from Susa, showing her wearing a crown and clutching her breasts

Early fifth-century BC statue of Aphrodite from Cyprus, showing her wearing a cylinder crown and holding a dove

Aphrodite took on Inanna-Ishtar's associations with sexuality and procreation.[27] Furthermore, she was known as Ourania (Οὐρανία), which means "heavenly",[28] a title corresponding to Inanna's role as the Queen of Heaven.[28][29] Early artistic and literary portrayals of Aphrodite are extremely similar on Inanna-Ishtar.[27] Like Inanna-Ishtar, Aphrodite was also a warrior goddess;[27][22][30] the second-century AD Greek geographer Pausanias records that, in Sparta, Aphrodite was worshipped as Aphrodite Areia, which means "warlike".[31][32] He also mentions that Aphrodite's most ancient cult statues in Sparta and on Cythera showed her bearing arms.[31][32][33][27] Modern scholars note that Aphrodite's warrior-goddess aspects appear in the oldest strata of her worship[34] and see it as an indication of her Near Eastern origins.[34][35]

Nineteenth century classical scholars had a general aversion to the idea that ancient Greek religion was at all influenced by the cultures of the Near East,[36] but, even Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker, who argued that Near Eastern influence on Greek culture was largely confined to material culture,[36] admitted that Aphrodite was clearly of Phoenician origin.[36] The significant influence of Near Eastern culture on early Greek religion in general, and on the cult of Aphrodite in particular,[37] is now widely recognized as dating to a period of orientalization during the eighth century BC,[37] when archaic Greece was on the fringes of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.[38]

Indo-European dawn goddess

Some early comparative mythologists opposed to the idea of a Near Eastern origin argued that Aphrodite originated as an aspect of the Greek dawn goddess Eos[39][40] and that she was therefore ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European dawn goddess *Haéusōs (properly Greek Eos, Latin Aurora, Sanskrit Ushas).[39][40] Most modern scholars have now rejected the notion of a purely Indo-European Aphrodite,[6][41][14][42] but it is possible that Aphrodite, originally a Semitic deity, may have been influenced by the Indo-European dawn goddess.[42] Both Aphrodite and Eos were known for their erotic beauty and aggressive sexuality[40] and both had relationships with mortal lovers.[40] Both goddesses were associated with the colors red, white, and gold.[40] Michael Janda etymologizes Aphrodite's name as an epithet of Eos meaning "she who rises from the foam [of the ocean]"[11] and points to Hesiod's Theogony account of Aphrodite's birth as an archaic reflex of Indo-European myth.[11] Aphrodite rising out of the waters after Cronus defeats Uranus as a mytheme would then be directly cognate to the Rigvedic myth of Indra defeating Vrtra, liberating Ushas.[10][11] Another key similarity between Aphrodite and the Indo-European dawn goddess is her close kinship to the Greek sky deity,[42] since both of the main claimants to her paternity (Zeus and Uranus) are sky deities.[43]

Aphrodite's most common cultic epithet was Ourania, meaning "heavenly",[47][48] but this epithet almost never occurs in literary texts, indicating a purely cultic significance.[49] Another common name for Aphrodite was Pandemos ("For All the Folk").[50] In her role as Aphrodite Pandemos, Aphrodite was associated with Peithō (Πείθω), meaning "persuasion",[51] and could be prayed to for aid in seduction.[51]Plato, in his Symposium, argues that Ourania and Pandemos are, in fact, separate goddesses. He asserts that Aphrodite Ourania is the celestial Aphrodite, born from the sea foam after Cronus castrated Uranus, and the older of the two goddesses. According to the Symposium, Aphrodite Ourania is the inspiration of male homosexual desire, specifically the ephebiceros. Aphrodite Pandemos, by contrast, is the younger of the two goddesses: the common Aphrodite, born from the union of Zeus and Dione, and the inspiration of heterosexual desire, the "lesser" of the two loves.[52][53]

Among the Neoplatonists and, later, their Christian interpreters, Ourania is associated with spiritual love, and Pandemos with physical love (desire). A representation of Ourania with her foot resting on a tortoise came to be seen as emblematic of discretion in conjugal love; it was the subject of a chryselephantine sculpture by Phidias for Elis, known only from a parenthetical comment by the geographer Pausanias.[54]

One of Aphrodite's most common literary epithets is Philommeidḗs (φιλομμειδής),[55] which means "smile-loving",[55] but is sometimes mistranslated as "laughter-loving".[55] This epithet occurs throughout both of the Homeric epics and the First Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite.[55] Hesiod references it once in his Theogony in the context of Aphrodite's birth,[56] but interprets it as "genital-loving" rather than "smile-loving".[56] Monica Cyrino notes that the epithet may relate to the fact that, in many artistic depictions of Aphrodite, she is shown smiling.[56] Other common literary epithets are Cypris and Cythereia,[57] which derive from her associations with the islands of Cyprus and Cythera respectively.[57]

On Cyprus, Aphrodite was sometimes called Eleemon ("the merciful").[48] In Athens, she was known as Aphrodite en kopois ("Aphrodite of the Gardens").[48] At Cape Colias, a town along the Attic coast, she was venerated as Genetyllis "Mother".[48] The Spartans worshipped her as Potnia "Mistress", Enoplios "Armed", Morpho "Shapely", Ambologera "She who Postpones Old Age".[48] Across the Greek world, she was known under epithets such as Melainis "Black One", Skotia "Dark One", Androphonos "Killer of Men", Anosia "Unholy", and Tymborychos "Gravedigger",[46] all of which indicate her darker, more violent nature.[46]

Worship

Classical period

Aphrodite's main festival, the Aphrodisia, was celebrated across Greece, but particularly in Athens and Corinth. In Athens, the Aphrodisia was celebrated on the fourth day of the month of Hekatombaion in honor of Aphrodite's role in the unification of Attica.[59][60] During this festival, the priests of Aphrodite would purify the temple of Aphrodite Pandemos on the southwestern slope of the Acropolis with the blood of a sacrificed dove.[61] Next, the altars would be anointed[61] and the cult statues of Aphrodite Pandemos and Peitho would be escorted in a majestic procession to a place where they would be ritually bathed.[62] Aphrodite was also honored in Athens as part of the Arrhephoria festival.[63] The fourth day of every month was sacred to Aphrodite.[64]

Pausanias records that, in Sparta, Aphrodite was worshipped as Aphrodite Areia, which means "warlike".[31][32] This epithet stresses Aphrodite's connections to Ares, with whom she had extramarital relations.[31][32] Pausanias also records that, in Sparta[31][32] and on Cythera, a number of extremely ancient cult statues of Aphrodite portrayed her bearing arms.[33][48] Other cult statues showed her bound in chains.[48]

Aphrodite was the patron goddess of prostitutes of all varieties,[65][48] ranging from pornai (cheap street prostitutes typically owned as slaves by wealthy pimps) to hetairai (expensive, well-educated hired companions, who were usually self-employed and sometimes provided sex to their customers).[66] The city of Corinth was renowned throughout the ancient world for its many hetairai,[67] who had a widespread reputation for being among the most skilled, but also the most expensive, prostitutes in the Greek world.[67] Corinth also had a major temple to Aphrodite located on the Acrocorinth[67] and was one of the main centers of her cult.[67] Records of numerous dedications to Aphrodite made by successful courtesans have survived in poems and in pottery inscriptions.[66] References to Aphrodite in association with prostitution are found in Corinth as well as on the islands of Cyprus, Cythera, and Sicily.[68] Aphrodite's Mesopotamian precursor Inanna-Ishtar was also closely associated with prostitution.[69][70][68]

Scholars in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries believed that the cult of Aphrodite may have involved ritual prostitution,[70][68] an assumption based on ambiguous passages in certain ancient texts, particularly a fragment of a skolion by the Boeotian poet Pindar,[71] which mentions prostitutes in Corinth in association with Aphrodite.[71] Modern scholars now dismiss the notion of ritual prostitution in Greece as a "historiographic myth" with no factual basis.[72]

The ancient Romans identified Aphrodite with their goddess Venus,[77] who was originally a goddess of agricultural fertility, vegetation, and springtime.[77] According to the Roman historian Livy, Aphrodite and Venus were officially identified in the third century BC[78] when the cult of Venus Erycina was introduced to Rome from the Greek sanctuary of Aphrodite on Mount Eryx in Sicily.[78] After this point, Romans adopted Aphrodite's iconography and myths and applied them to Venus.[78] Because Aphrodite was the mother of the Trojan hero Aeneas in Greek mythology[78] and Roman tradition claimed Aeneas as the founder of Rome,[78] Venus became venerated as Venus Genetrix, the mother of the entire Roman nation.[78]Julius Caesar claimed to be directly descended from Aeneas's son Iulus[79] and became a strong proponent of the cult of Venus.[79] This precedent was later followed by his nephew Augustus and the later emperors claiming succession from him.[79]

This syncretism greatly impacted Greek worship of Aphrodite.[80] During the Roman era, the cults of Aphrodite in many Greek cities began to emphasize her relationship with Troy and Aeneas.[80] They also began to adopt distinctively Roman elements,[80] portraying Aphrodite as more maternal, more militaristic, and more concerned with administrative bureaucracy.[80] She was claimed as a divine guardian by many political magistrates.[80] Appearances of Aphrodite in Greek literature also vastly proliferated, usually showing Aphrodite in a characteristically Roman manner.[81]

Aphrodite is usually said to have been born near her chief center of worship, Paphos, on the island of Cyprus, which is why she is sometimes called "Cyprian", especially in the poetic works of Sappho. However, other versions of her myth have her born near the island of Cythera, hence another of her names, "Cytherea".[82] Cythera was a stopping place for trade and culture between Crete and the Peloponesus,[83] so these stories may preserve traces of the migration of Aphrodite's cult from the Middle East to mainland Greece.[84]

According to the version of her birth recounted by Hesiod in his Theogony,[85][86]Cronus severed Uranus' genitals and threw them behind him into the sea.[86][87][88] The foam from his genitals gave rise to Aphrodite[4] (hence her name, which Hesiod interprets as "foam-arisen"),[4] while the Giants, the Erinyes (furies), and the Meliae emerged from the drops of his blood.[86][87] Hesiod states that the genitals "were carried over the sea a long time, and white foam arose from the immortal flesh; with it a girl grew." Hesiod's account of Aphrodite's birth following Uranus's castration is probably derived from The Song of Kumarbi,[89][90] an ancient Hittite epic poem in which the god Kumarbi overthrows his father Anu, the god of the sky, and bites off his genitals, causing him to become pregnant and give birth to Anu's children, which include Ishtar and her brother Teshub, the Hittite storm god.[89][90]

In the Iliad,[91] Aphrodite is described as the daughter of Zeus and Dione.[4] Dione's name appears to be a feminine cognate to Dios and Dion,[4] which are oblique forms of the name Zeus.[4] Zeus and Dione shared a cult at Dodona in northwestern Greece.[4] In Theogony, Hesiod describes Dione as an Oceanid.[92]

Marriage

Aphrodite is consistently portrayed as a nubile, infinitely desirable adult, having had no childhood.[93] She is often depicted nude.[94] In the Iliad, Aphrodite is the apparently unmarried consort of Ares, the god of war,[95] and the wife of Hephaestus is a different goddess named Charis.[96] Likewise, in Hesiod's Theogony, Aphrodite is unmarried and the wife of Hephaestus is Aglaea, the youngest of the three Charites.[96]

In Book Eight of the Odyssey,[97] however, the blind singer Demodocus describes Aphrodite as the wife of Hephaestus and tells how she committed adultery with Ares during the Trojan War.[96][98] The sun-god Helios saw Aphrodite and Ares having sex in Hephaestus's bed and warned Hephaestus, who fashioned a net of gold.[98] The next time Ares and Aphrodite had sex together, the net trapped them both.[98] Hephaestus brought all the gods into the bedchamber to laugh at the captured adulterers,[99] but Apollo, Hermes, and Poseidon had sympathy for Ares[100] and Poseidon agreed to pay Hephaestus for Ares's release.[101] Humiliated, Aphrodite returned to Cyprus, where she was attended by the Charites.[101] This narrative probably originated as a Greek folk tale, originally independent of the Odyssey.[102]

Later stories were invented to explain Aphrodite's marriage to Hephaestus. In the most famous story, Zeus hastily married Aphrodite to Hephaestus in order to prevent the other gods from fighting over her.[103] In another version of the myth, Hephaestus gave his mother Hera a golden throne, but when she sat on it, she became trapped and he refused to let her go until she agreed to give him Aphrodite's hand in marriage.[104] Hephaestus was overjoyed to be married to the goddess of beauty, and forged her beautiful jewelry, including a strophion known as the kestos imas,[105] a saltire-shaped undergarment (usually translated as "girdle"),[106] which accentuated her breasts[107] and made her even more irresistible to men.[106] Such strophia were commonly used in depictions of the Near Eastern goddesses Ishtar and Atargatis.[106]

Attendants

Aphrodite is almost always accompanied by Eros, the god of lust and sexual desire.[108] In his Theogony, Hesiod describes Eros as one of the four original primeval forces born at the beginning of time,[108] but, after the birth of Aphrodite from the sea foam, he is joined by Himeros and, together, they become Aphrodite's constant companions.[109] In early Greek art, Eros and Himeros are both shown as idealized handsome youths with wings.[110] The Greek lyric poets regarded the power of Eros and Himeros as dangerous, compulsive, and impossible for anyone to resist.[111] In modern times, Eros is often seen as Aphrodite's son,[112] but this is actually a comparatively late innovation.[113] A scholion on Theocritus's Idylls remarks that the sixth-century BC poetess Sappho had described Eros as the son of Aphrodite and Uranus,[114] but the first surviving reference to Eros as Aphrodite's son comes from Apollonius of Rhodes's Argonautica, written in the third century BC, which makes him the son of Aphrodite and Ares.[115] Later, the Romans, who saw Venus as a mother goddess, seized on this idea of Eros as Aphrodite's son and popularized it,[115] making it the predominant portrayal in works on mythology until the present day.[115]

Aphrodite's main attendants were the three Charites, whom Hesiod identifies as the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome and names as Aglaea "Splendor", Euphrosyne "Good Cheer", and Thalia "Abundance".[116] The Charites had been worshipped as goddesses in Greece since the beginning of Greek history, long before Aphrodite was introduced to the pantheon.[96] Aphrodite's other set of attendants was the three Horae (the "Hours"),[96] whom Hesiod identifies as the daughters of Zeus and Themis and names as Eunomia (Good Order), Dike (Justice), and Eirene (Peace).[117] Aphrodite was also sometimes accompanied by Harmonia, her daughter by Ares, and Hebe, the daughter of Zeus and Hera.[118]

Anchises

The First Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (Hymn 5), which was probably composed sometime in the mid-seventh century BC,[122] describes how Zeus once became annoyed with Aphrodite for causing deities to fall in love with mortals,[122] so he caused her to fall in love with Anchises, a handsome mortal shepherd who lived in the foothills beneath Mount Ida near the city of Troy.[122] Aphrodite appears to Anchises in the form of a tall, beautiful, mortal virgin while he is alone in his home.[123] Anchises sees her dressed in bright clothing and gleaming jewelry, with her breasts shining with divine radiance.[124] He asks her if she is Aphrodite and promises to build her an altar on top of the mountain if she will bless him and his family.[125]

Aphrodite lies and tells him that she is not a goddess, but the daughter of one of the noble families of Phrygia.[125] She claims to be able to understand the Trojan language because she had a Trojan nurse as a child and says that she found herself on the mountainside after she was snatched up by Hermes while dancing in a celebration in honor of Artemis, the goddess of virginity.[125] Aphrodite tells Anchises that she is still a virgin[125] and begs him to take her to his parents.[125] Anchises immediately becomes overcome with mad lust for Aphrodite and swears that he will have sex with her.[125] Anchises takes Aphrodite, with her eyes cast downwards, to his bed, which is covered in the furs of lions and bears.[126] He then strips her naked and makes love to her.[126]

After the lovemaking is complete, Aphrodite reveals her true divine form.[127] Anchises is terrified, but Aphrodite consoles him and promises that she will bear him a son.[127] She prophecizes that their son will be the demigodAeneas, who will be raised by the nymphs of the wilderness for five years before going to Troy to become a nobleman like his father.[128] The story of Aeneas's conception is also mentioned in Hesiod's Theogony and in Book II of Homer's Iliad.[128][129]

Adonis

Attic red-figurearyballos by Aison (c. 410 BC) showing Aphrodite consorting with Adonis, who is seated and playing the lyre, while Eros stands behind him

Fragment of an Attic red-figure wedding vase (c. 430-420 BC), showing women climbing ladders up to the roofs of their houses carrying "gardens of Adonis"

The myth of Aphrodite and Adonis is probably derived from the ancient Sumerian legend of Inanna and Dumuzid.[130][131][132] The Greek name Ἄδωνις (Adōnis, Greek pronunciation: [ádɔːnis]) is derived from the Canaanite word ʼadōn, meaning "lord".[133][132] The earliest known Greek reference to Adonis comes from a fragment of a poem by the Lesbian poetess Sappho (c. 630 – c. 570 BC), in which a chorus of young girls asks Aphrodite what they can do to mourn Adonis's death.[134] Aphrodite replies that they must beat their breasts and tear their tunics.[134] Later references flesh out the story with more details.[135] According to the retelling of the story found in the poem Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid (43 BC – 17/18 AD), Adonis was the son of Myrrha, who was cursed by Aphrodite with insatiable lust for her own father, King Cinyras of Cyprus, after Myrrha's mother bragged that her daughter was more beautiful than the goddess.[136] Driven out after becoming pregnant, Myrrha was changed into a myrrh tree, but still gave birth to Adonis.[137]

Aphrodite found the baby, and took him to the underworld to be fostered by Persephone.[138] She returned for him once he was grown and discovered him to be strikingly handsome.[138] Persephone wanted to keep Adonis, resulting in a custody battle between the two goddesses over whom should rightly possess Adonis.[138] Zeus settled the dispute by decreeing that Adonis would spend one third of the year with Aphrodite, one third with Persephone, and one third with whomever he chose.[138] Adonis chose to spend that time with Aphrodite.[138] Then, one day, while Adonis was hunting, he was wounded by a wild boar and bled to death in Aphrodite's arms.[138]

In different versions of the story, the boar was either sent by Ares, who was jealous that Aphrodite was spending so much time with Adonis, or by Artemis, who wanted revenge against Aphrodite for having killed her devoted follower Hippolytus.[139] The story also provides an etiology for Aphrodite's associations with certain flowers.[139] Reportedly, as she mourned Adonis's death, she caused anemones to grow wherever his blood fell,[139] and declared a festival on the anniversary of his death.[138] In one version of the story, Aphrodite injured herself on a thorn from a rose bush and the rose, which had previously been white, was stained red by her blood.[139] According to Lucian's On the Syrian Goddess,[97] each year during the festival of Adonis, the Adonis River in Lebanon (now known as the Abraham River) ran red with blood.[138]

The myth of Adonis is associated with the festival of the Adonia, which was celebrated by Greek women every year in midsummer.[132] The festival, which was evidently already celebrated in Lesbos by Sappho's time, seems to have first become popular in Athens in the mid-fifth century BC.[132] At the start of the festival, the women would plant a "garden of Adonis", a small garden planted inside a small basket or a shallow piece of broken pottery containing a variety of quick-growing plants, such as lettuce and fennel, or even quick-sprouting grains such as wheat and barley.[132] The women would then climb ladders to the roofs of their houses, where they would place the gardens out under the heat of the summer sun.[132] The plants would sprout in the sunlight,[132] but wither quickly in the heat.[140] Then the women would mourn and lament loudly over the death of Adonis,[141] tearing their clothes and beating their breasts in a public display of grief.[141]

Divine favoritism

Pygmalion and Galatea (1717) by Jean Raoux, showing Aphrodite bringing the statue to life

In Hesiod's Works and Days, Zeus orders Aphrodite to make Pandora, the first woman, physically beautiful and sexually attractive,[142] so that she may become "an evil men will love to embrace".[143] Aphrodite "spills grace" over Pandora's head[142] and equips her with "painful desire and knee-weakening anguish", thus making her the perfect vessel for evil to enter the world.[144] Aphrodite's attendants, Peitho, the Charites, and the Horae, adorn Pandora with gold and jewelry.[145]

According to one myth, Aphrodite aided Hippomenes, a noble youth who wished to marry Atalanta, a maiden who was renowned throughout the land for her beauty, but who refused to marry any man unless he could outrun her in a footrace.[146][147] Atalanta was an exceedingly swift runner and she beheaded all of the men who lost to her.[146][147] Aphrodite gave Hippomenes three golden apples from the Garden of the Hesperides and instructed him to toss them in front of Atalanta as he raced her.[146][148] Hippomenes obeyed Aphrodite's order[146] and Atalanta, seeing the beautiful, golden fruits, bent down to pick up each one, allowing Hippomenes to outrun her.[146][148] In the version of the story from Ovid's Metamorphoses, Hippomenes forgets to repay Aphrodite for her aid,[149][146] so she causes the couple to become inflamed with lust while they are staying at the temple of Cybele.[146] The couple desecrate the temple by having sex in it, leading Cybele to turn them into lions as punishment.[149][146]

The myth of Pygmalion is first mentioned by the third-century BC Greek writer Philostephanus of Cyrene,[150][151] but is first recounted in detail in Ovid's Metamorphoses.[150] According to Ovid, Pygmalion was an exceedingly handsome sculptor from the island of Cyprus, who was so sickened by the immorality of women that he refused to marry.[152][153] He fell madly and passionately in love with the ivory cult statue he was carving of Aphrodite and longed to marry it.[152][154] Because Pygmalion was extremely pious and devoted to Aphrodite,[152][155] the goddess brought the statue to life.[152][155] Pygmalion married the girl the statue became and they had a son named Paphos, after whom the capital of Cyprus received its name.[152][155]Pseudo-Apollodorus later mentions "Metharme, daughter of Pygmalion, king of Cyprus".[156]

Anger myths

First-century AD Roman fresco from Pompeii showing the virgin Hippolytus spurning the advances of his stepmother Phaedra, whom Aphrodite caused to fall in love with him in order to bring about his tragic death.[157]

Aphrodite generously rewarded those who honored her, but also punished those who disrespected her, often quite brutally.[158] A myth described in Apollonius of Rhodes's Argonautica and later summarized in the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus tells how, when the women of the island of Lemnos refused to sacrifice to Aphrodite, the goddess cursed them to stink horribly so that their husbands would never have sex with them.[159] Instead, their husbands started having sex with their Thracianslave-girls.[159] In anger, the women of Lemnos murdered the entire male population of the island, as well as all the Thracian slaves.[159] When Jason and his crew of Argonauts arrived on Lemnos, they mated with the sex-starved women under Aphrodite's approval and repopulated the island.[159] From then on, the women of Lemnos never disrespected Aphrodite again.[159]

In Euripides's tragedy Hippolytus, which was first performed at the City Dionysia in 428 BC, Theseus's son Hippolytus worships only Artemis, the goddess of virginity, and refuses to engage in any form of sexual contact.[159] Aphrodite is infuriated by his prideful behavior[160] and, in the prologue to the play, she declares that, by honoring only Artemis and refusing to venerate her, Hippolytus has directly challenged her authority.[161] Aphrodite therefore causes Hippolytus's stepmother, Phaedra, to fall in love with him, knowing Hippolytus will reject her.[162] After being rejected, Phaedra commits suicide and leaves a suicide note to Theseus telling him that she killed herself because Hippolytus attempted to rape her.[162] Theseus prays to Poseidon to kill Hippolytus for his transgression.[163] Poseidon sends a wild bull to scare Hippolytus's horses as he is riding by the sea in his chariot, causing the horses to bolt and smash the chariot against the cliffs, dragging Hippolytus to a bloody death across the rocky shoreline.[163] The play concludes with Artemis vowing to kill Aphrodite's own mortal beloved (presumably Adonis) in revenge.[164]

Glaucus of Corinth angered Aphrodite by refusing to let his horses for chariot racing mate, since doing so would hinder their speed.[165] During the chariot race at the funeral games of King Pelias, Aphrodite drove his horses mad and they tore him apart.[166]Polyphonte was a young woman who chose a virginal life with Artemis instead of marriage and children, as favoured by Aphrodite. Aphrodite cursed her, causing her to have children by a bear. The resulting offspring, Agrius and Oreius, were wild cannibals who incurred the hatred of Zeus. Ultimately, he transformed all the members of the family into birds of ill omen.[167]

Judgment of Paris and Trojan War

The myth of the Judgement of Paris is mentioned briefly in the Iliad,[168] but is described in depth in an epitome of the Cypria, a lost poem of the Epic Cycle,[169] which records that all the gods and goddesses as well as various mortals were invited to the marriage of Peleus and Thetis (the eventual parents of Achilles).[168] Only Eris, goddess of discord, was not invited.[169] She was annoyed at this, so she arrived with a golden apple inscribed with the word καλλίστῃ (kallistēi, "for the fairest"), which she threw among the goddesses.[170] Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena all claimed to be the fairest, and thus the rightful owner of the apple.[170]

The goddesses chose to place the matter before Zeus, who, not wanting to favor one of the goddesses, put the choice into the hands of Paris, a Trojan prince.[170] After bathing in the spring of Mount Ida where Troy was situated, the goddesses appeared before Paris for his decision.[170] In the extant ancient depictions of the Judgement of Paris, Aphrodite is only occasionally represented nude, and Athena and Hera are always fully clothed.[171] Since the Renaissance, however, western paintings have typically portrayed all three goddesses as completely naked.[171]

All three goddesses were ideally beautiful and Paris could not decide between them, so they resorted to bribes.[170] Hera tried to bribe Paris with power over all Asia and Europe,[170] and Athena offered wisdom, fame and glory in battle,[170] but Aphrodite promised Paris that, if he were to choose her as the fairest, she would let him marry the most beautiful woman on earth.[172] This woman was Helen, who was already married to King Menelaus of Sparta.[172] Paris selected Aphrodite and awarded her the apple.[172] The other two goddesses were enraged and, as a direct result, sided with the Greeks in the Trojan War.[172]

Aphrodite plays an important and active role throughout the entirety of Homer's Iliad.[173] In Book III, she rescues Paris from Menelaus after he foolishly challenges him to a one-on-one duel.[174] She then appears to Helen in the form of an old woman and attempts to persuade her to have sex with Paris,[175] reminding her of his physical beauty and athletic prowess.[176] Helen immediately recognizes Aphrodite by her beautiful neck, perfect breasts, and flashing eyes[177] and chides the goddess, addressing her as her equal.[178] Aphrodite sharply rebukes Helen, reminding her that, if she vexes her, she will punish her just as much as she has favored her already.[179] Helen demurely obeys Aphrodite's command.[179]

In Book V, Aphrodite charges into battle to rescue her son Aeneas from the Greek hero Diomedes.[180] Diomedes recognizes Aphrodite as a "weakling" goddess[180] and, thrusting his spear, nicks her wrist through her "ambrosial robe".[181] Aphrodite borrows Ares's chariot to ride back to Mount Olympus.[182] Zeus chides her for putting herself in danger,[182][183] reminding her that "her specialty is love, not war."[182] According to Walter Burkert, this scene directly parallels a scene from Tablet VI of the Epic of Gilgamesh in which Ishtar, Aphrodite's Akkadian precursor, cries to her mother Antu after the hero Gilgamesh rejects her sexual advances, but is mildly rebuked by her father Anu.[184] In Book XIV of the Iliad, during the Dios Apate episode, Aphrodite lends her kestos himas to Hera for the purpose of seducing Zeus and distracting him from the combat while Poseidon aids the Greek forces on the beach.[185] In the Theomachia in Book XXI, Aphrodite again enters the battlefield to carry Ares away after he is wounded.[182][186]

1 Eros was originally a primordial being; only later became Aphrodite's son

2 Anteros was originally born from the sea alongside Aphrodite; only later became her son

Iconography

Symbols

Rich-throned immortal Aphrodite,scheming daughter of Zeus, I pray you,with pain and sickness, Queen, crush not my heart,but come, if ever in the past you heard my voice from afar and hearkened,and left your father's halls and came, with goldchariot yoked; and pretty sparrowsbrought you swiftly across the dark earthfluttering wings from heaven through the air.

Aphrodite's most prominent avian symbol was the dove,[199] which was originally an important symbol of her Near Eastern precursor Inanna-Ishtar.[200][201] (In fact, the ancient Greek word for "dove", peristerá, may be derived from a Semitic phrase peraḥ Ištar, meaning "bird of Ishtar".[200][201]) Aphrodite frequently appears with doves in ancient Greek pottery[199] and the temple of Aphrodite Pandemos on the southwest slope of the Athenian Acropolis was decorated with relief sculptures of doves with knotted fillets in their beaks.[202] Votive offerings of small, white, marble doves were also discovered in the temple of Aphrodite at Daphni.[202] In addition to her associations with doves, Aphrodite was also closely linked with sparrows[199] and she is described riding in a chariot pulled by sparrows in Sappho's "Ode to Aphrodite".[202]

Because of her connections to the sea, Aphrodite was associated with a number of different types of water fowl,[203] including swans, geese, and ducks.[203] Aphrodite's other symbols included the sea, conch shells, and roses.[204] The rose and myrtle flowers were both sacred to Aphrodite.[205] Her most important fruit emblem was the apple,[206] but she was also associated with pomegranates,[207] possibly because the red seeds suggested sexuality[208] or because Greek women sometimes used pomegranates as a method of birth control.[208] In Greek art, Aphrodite is often also accompanied by dolphins and Nereids.[209]

A scene of Aphrodite rising from the sea appears on the back of the Ludovisi Throne (c. 460 BC),[212] which was probably originally part of a massive altar that was constructed as part of the Ionic temple to Aphrodite in the Greek polis of Locri Epizephyrii in Magna Graecia in southern Italy.[212] The throne shows Aphrodite rising from the sea, clad in a diaphanous garment, which is drenched with seawater and clinging to her body, revealing her upturned breasts and the outline of her navel.[213] Her hair hangs dripping as she reaches to two attendants standing barefoot on the rocky shore on either side of her, lifting her out of the water.[213] Scenes with Aphrodite appear in works of classical Greek pottery,[214] including a famous white-groundkylix by the Pistoxenos Painter dating the between c. 470 and 460 BC, showing her riding on a swan or goose.[214]

In c. 364/361 BC, the Athenian sculptor Praxiteles carved the marble statueAphrodite of Knidos,[215][211] which Pliny the Elder later praised as the greatest sculpture ever made.[215] The statue showed a nude Aphrodite modestly covering her pubic region while resting against a water pot with her robe draped over it for support.[216][217] The Aphrodite of Knidos was the first ever full-sized statue to depict Aphrodite completely naked[218] and one of the first sculptures that was intended to be viewed from all sides.[219][218] The statue was purchased by the people of Knidos in around 350 BC[218] and proved to be tremendously influential on later depictions of Aphrodite.[219] The original sculpture has been lost,[215][217] but written descriptions of it as well several depictions of it on coins are still extant[220][215][217] and over sixty copies, small-scale models, and fragments of it have been identified.[220]

During the Hellenistic and Roman periods, statues depicting Aphrodite proliferated;[221] many of these statues were modeled at least to some extent on Praxiteles's Aphrodite of Knidos.[221] Some statues show Aphrodite crouching naked;[222] others show her wringing water out of her hair as she rises from the sea.[222] Another common type of statue is known as Aphrodite Kallipygos, the name of which is Greek for "Aphrodite of the Beautiful Buttocks";[222] this type of sculpture shows Aphrodite lifting her peplos to display her buttocks to the viewer while looking back at them from over her shoulder.[222] The ancient Romans produced massive numbers of copies of Greek sculptures of Aphrodite[221] and more sculptures of Aphrodite have survived from antiquity than of any other deity.[222]

The Ludovisi Throne (possibly c. 460 BC) is believed to be a classical Greek bas-relief, although it has also been alleged to be a 19th-century forgery.

Post-classical culture

Fifteenth century manuscript illumination of Venus, sitting on a rainbow, with her devotees offering her their hearts

Middle Ages

Early Christians frequently adapted pagan iconography to suit Christian purposes.[223][224][225][c] In the Early Middle Ages, Christians adapted elements of Aphrodite/Venus's iconography and applied them to Eve and prostitutes,[224] but also female saints and even the Virgin Mary.[224]Christians in the east reinterpreted the story of Aphrodite's birth as a metaphor for baptism;[226] in a Coptic stele from the sixth century AD, a female orant is shown wearing Aphrodite's conch shell as a sign that she is newly baptized.[226] Throughout the Middle Ages, villages and communities across Europe still maintained folk tales and traditions about Aphrodite/Venus[227] and travelers reported a wide variety of stories.[227] Numerous Roman mosaics of Venus survived in Britain, preserving memory of the pagan past.[204] In North Africa in the late fifth century AD, Fulgentius of Ruspe encountered mosaics of Aphrodite[204] and reinterpreted her as a symbol of the sin of Lust,[204] arguing that she was shown naked because "the sin of lust is never cloaked"[204] and that she was often shown "swimming" because "all lust suffers shipwreck of its affairs."[204] He also argued that she was associated with doves and conchs because these are symbols of copulation,[204] and that she was associated with roses because "as the rose gives pleasure, but is swept away by the swift movement of the seasons, so lust is pleasant for a moment, but is swept away forever."[204]

While Fulgentius had appropriated Aphrodite as a symbol of Lust,[228]Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636) interpreted her as a symbol of marital procreative sex[228] and declared that the moral of the story of Aphrodite's birth is that sex can only be holy in the presence of semen, blood, and heat, which he regarded as all being necessary for procreation.[228] Meanwhile, Isidore denigrated Aphrodite/Venus's son Eros/Cupid as a "demon of fornication" (daemon fornicationis).[228] Aphrodite/Venus was best known to Western European scholars through her appearances in Virgil's Aeneid and Ovid's Metamorphoses.[229] Venus is mentioned in the Latin poem Pervigilium Veneris ("The Eve of Saint Venus"), written in the third or fourth century AD,[230] and in Giovanni Boccaccio's Genealogia Deorum Gentilium.[231]

Art

Aphrodite is the central figure in Sandro Botticelli's painting Primavera, which has been described as "one of the most written about, and most controversial paintings in the world",[232] and "one of the most popular paintings in Western art".[233] The story of Aphrodite's birth from the foam was a popular subject matter for painters during the Italian Renaissance,[234] who were attempting to consciously reconstruct Apelles of Kos's lost masterpiece Aphrodite Anadyomene based on the literary ekphrasis of it preserved by Cicero and Pliny the Elder.[235] Artists also drew inspiration from Ovid's description of the birth of Venus in his Metamorphoses.[235] Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus (c. 1485) was also partially inspired by a description by Poliziano of a relief on the subject.[235] Later Italian renditions of the same scene include Titian's Venus Anadyomene (c. 1525)[235] and Raphael's painting in the Stufetta del cardinal Bibbiena (1516).[235] Titian's biographer Giorgio Vasari identified all of Titian's paintings of naked women as paintings of "Venus",[236] including an erotic painting from c. 1534, which he called the Venus of Urbino, even though the painting does not contain any of Aphrodite/Venus's traditional iconography and the woman in it is clearly shown in a contemporary setting, not a classical one.[236]

Jacques-Louis David's final work was his 1824 magnum opus, Mars Being Disarmed by Venus,[238] which combines elements of classical, Renaissance, traditional French art, and contemporary artistic styles.[238] While he was working on the painting, David described it, saying, "This is the last picture I want to paint, but I want to surpass myself in it. I will put the date of my seventy-five years on it and afterwards I will never again pick up my brush."[239] The painting was exhibited first in Brussels and then in Paris, where over 10,000 people came to see it.[239]Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres's painting Venus Anadyomene was one of his major works.[240] Louis Geofroy described it as a "dream of youth realized with the power of maturity, a happiness that few obtain, artists or others."[240]Théophile Gautier declared: "Nothing remains of the marvelous painting of the Greeks, but surely if anything could give the idea of antique painting as it was conceived following the statues of Phidias and the poems of Homer, it is M. Ingres's painting: the Venus Anadyomene of Apelles has been found."[240] Other critics dismissed it as a piece of unimaginative, sentimental kitsch,[240] but Ingres himself considered it to be among his greatest works and used the same figure as the model for his later 1856 painting La Source.[240]

Paintings of Venus were favorites of the late nineteenth-century Academic artists in France.[241][242] In 1863, Alexandre Cabanel won widespread critical acclaim at the Paris Salon for his painting The Birth of Venus, which the French emperor Napoleon III immediately purchased for his own personal art collection.[243]Édouard Manet's 1865 painting Olympiaparodied the nude Venuses of the Academic painters, particularly Cabanel's Birth of Venus.[244] In 1867, the English Academic painter Frederic Leighton displayed his Venus Disrobing for the Bath at the Academy.[245] The art critic J. B. Atkinson praised it, declaring that "Mr Leighton, instead of adopting corrupt Roman notions regarding Venus such as Rubens embodied, has wisely reverted to the Greek idea of Aphrodite, a goddess worshipped, and by artists painted, as the perfection of female grace and beauty."[246] A year later, the English painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, painted Venus Verticordia (Latin for "Aphrodite, the Changer of Hearts"), showing Aphrodite as a nude red-headed woman in a garden of roses.[245] Though he was reproached for his outré subject matter,[245] Rossetti refused to alter the painting and it was soon purchased by J. Mitchell of Bradford.[246] In 1879, William Adolphe Bouguereau exhibited at the Paris Salon his own Birth of Venus,[243] which imitated the classical tradition of contrapposto and was met with widespread critical acclaim, rivalling the popularity of Cabanel's version from nearly two decades prior.[243]

Aphrodite appears in Richard Garnett's short story collection The Twilight of the Gods and Other Tales (1888),[251] in which the gods' temples have been destroyed by Christians.[252] Stories revolving around sculptures of Aphrodite were common in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.[253] Examples of such works of literature include the novel The Tinted Venus: A Farcical Romance (1885) by Thomas Anstey Guthrie and the short story The Venus of Ille (1887) by Prosper Mérimée,[254] both of which are about statues of Aphrodite that come to life.[254] Another noteworthy example is Aphrodite in Aulis by the Anglo-Irish writer George Moore,[255] which revolves around an ancient Greek family who moves to Aulis.[256] The French writer Pierre Louÿs titled his erotic historical novel Aphrodite: mœurs antiques (1896) after the Greek goddess.[257] The novel enjoyed widespread commercial success,[257] but scandalized French audiences due to its sensuality and its decadent portrayal of Greek society.[257]

In the early twentieth century, stories of Aphrodite were used by feminist poets,[258] such as Amy Lowell and Alicia Ostriker.[259] Many of these poems dealt with Aphrodite's legendary birth from the foam of the sea.[258] Other feminist writers, including Claude Cahun, Thit Jensen, and Anaïs Nin also made use of the myth of Aphrodite in their writings.[260] Ever since the publication of Isabel Allende's book Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses in 1998, the name "Aphrodite" has been used as a title for dozens of books dealing with all topics even superficially connected to her domain.[261] Frequently these books do not even mention Aphrodite,[261] or mention her only briefly, but make use of her name as a selling point.[262]

Modern worship

In 1938, Gleb Botkin, a Russian immigrant to the United States, founded the Church of Aphrodite, a Neopagan religion centered around the worship of a Mother Goddess, whom its practitioners identified as Aphrodite.[263][264] The Church of Aphrodite's theology was laid out in the book In Search of Reality, published in 1969, two years before Botkin's death.[265] The book portrayed Aphrodite in a drastically different light than the one in which the Greeks envisioned her,[265] instead casting her as "the sole Goddess of a somewhat Neoplatonic Pagan monotheism".[265] It claimed that the worship of Aphrodite had been brought to Greece by the mystic teacherOrpheus,[265] but that the Greeks had misunderstood Orpheus's teachings and had not realized the importance of worshipping Aphrodite alone.[265]

Aphrodite is a major deity in Wicca,[266][267] a contemporary nature-based syncretic Neopagan religion.[268] Wiccans regard Aphrodite as one aspect of the Goddess[267] and she is frequently invoked by name during enchantments dealing with love and romance.[269][270] Wiccans regard Aphrodite as the ruler of human emotions, erotic spirituality, creativity, and art.[271] As one of the twelve Olympians, Aphrodite is a major deity within Hellenismos (Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism),[272][273] a Neopagan religion which seeks to authentically revive and recreate the religion of ancient Greece in the modern world.[274] Unlike Wiccans, Hellenists are usually strictly polytheistic or pantheistic.[275] Hellenists venerate Aphrodite primarily as the goddess of romantic love,[273] but also as a goddess of sexuality, the sea, and war.[273] Her many epithets include "Sea Born", "Killer of Men", "She upon the Graves", "Fair Sailing", and "Ally in War".[273]

See also

Notes

The statuette portrays Aphrodite on the point of untying the laces of the sandal on her left foot, under which a small Eros squats, touching the sole of her shoe with his right hand. The Goddess is leaning with her left arm (the hand is missing) against a figure of Priapus standing, naked and bearded, positioned on a small cylindrical altar while, next to her left thigh, there is a tree trunk over which the garment of the Goddess is folded. Aphrodite, almost completely naked, wears only a sort of costume, consisting of a corset held up by two pairs of straps and two short sleeves on the upper part of her arm, from which a long chain leads to her hips and forms a star-shaped motif at the level of her navel. The 'bikini', for which the statuette is famous, is obtained by the masterly use of the technique of gilding, also employed on her groin, in the pendant necklace and in the armilla on Aphrodite's right wrist, as well as on Priapus' phallus. Traces of the red paint are evident on the tree trunk, on the short curly hair gathered back in a bun and on the lips of the Goddess, as well as on the heads of Priapus and the Eros. Aphrodite's eyes are made of glass paste, while the presence of holes at the level of the ear-lobes suggest the existence of precious metal ear-rings which have since been lost. An interesting insight into the female ornaments of Roman times, the statuette, probably imported from the area of Alexandria, reproduces with a few modifications the statuary type of Aphrodite untying her sandal, known from copies in bronze and terracotta.

^This does not in any way indicate that Christianity itself was derived from paganism, only that early Christians made use of the pre-existing symbols that were readily available in their society.[223]

References

^ abEros is usually mentioned as the son of Aphrodite but in other versions he is born out of Chaos

^Pausanias, Periegesis vi.25.1; Aphrodite Pandemos was represented in the same temple riding on a goat, symbol of purely carnal rut: "The meaning of the tortoise and of the he-goat I leave to those who care to guess," Pausanias remarks. The image was taken up again after the Renaissance: see Andrea Alciato, Emblemata / Les emblemes (1584).

Burkert, Walter (2005), "Chapter Twenty: Near Eastern Connections", in Foley, John Miles, A Companion to Ancient Epic, New York City, New York and London, England: Blackwell Publishing, ISBN 978-1-4051-0524-8

Hiscock, Andrew (2017), ""Suppose thou dost defend me from what is past": Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece and the appetite for ancient memory", in Hiscock, Andrew; Wilder, Lina Perkins, The Routledge Handbook of Shakespeare and Memory, New York City, New York and London, England: Routledge, ISBN 978-1-315-74594-7

External links

Adonis was the mortal lover of the goddess Aphrodite in Greek mythology. In Ovid's first-century AD telling of the myth, he was conceived after Aphrodite cursed his mother Myrrha to lust after her own father, King Cinyras of Cyprus. Myrrha had sex with her father in complete darkness for nine nights, but he discovered her identity and chased her with a sword. The gods transformed her into a myrrh tree and, in the form of a tree, she gave birth to Adonis. Aphrodite found the infant and gave him to be raised by Persephone, the queen of the Underworld. Adonis grew into an astonishingly handsome young man, causing Aphrodite and Persephone to feud over him, with Zeus eventually decreeing that Adonis would spend one third of the year in the Underworld with Persephone, one third of the year with Aphrodite, and the final third of the year with whomever he chose. Adonis chose to spend his final third of the year with Aphrodite.

One day, Adonis was gored by a wild boar during a hunting trip and died in Aphrodite's arms as she wept. His blood mingled with her tears and became the anemone flower. Aphrodite declared the Adonia festival commemorating his tragic death, which was celebrated by women every year in midsummer. During this festival, Greek women would plant "gardens of Adonis", small pots containing fast-growing plants, which they would set on top of their houses in the hot sun. The plants would sprout, but soon wither and die. Then the women would mourn the death of Adonis, tearing their clothes and beating their breasts in a public display of grief. The Greeks considered Adonis's cult to be of Oriental origin. Adonis's name comes from a Canaanite word meaning "lord" and modern scholars consider the story of Aphrodite and Adonis to be derived from the earlier Mesopotamian myth of Inanna (Ishtar) and Dumuzid (Tammuz).

In late nineteenth and early twentieth century scholarship of religion, Adonis was widely seen as a prime example of the archetypal dying-and-rising god, but the existence of the "dying-and-rising god" archetype has been largely rejected by modern scholars and its application to Adonis is undermined by the fact that no pre-Christian text ever describes Adonis as rising from the dead and the only possible references to his resurrection are late, ambiguous allusions made by Christian writers. His name is often applied in modern times to handsome youths, of whom he is the archetype.

In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas (; Greek: Αἰνείας, Aineías, possibly derived from Greek αἰνή meaning "praised") was a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite (Venus). His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy (both being grandsons of Ilus, founder of Troy), making Aeneas a second cousin to Priam's children (such as Hector and Paris). He is a character in Greek mythology and is mentioned in Homer's Iliad. Aeneas receives full treatment in Roman mythology, most extensively in Virgil's Aeneid, where he is cast as an ancestor of Romulus and Remus. He became the first true hero of Rome. Snorri Sturluson identifies him with the Norse Æsir Vidarr.

Anchises (, ann-KY-seez; Greek: Ἀγχίσης, Ankhísēs) was a member of the royal family of Troy in Greek and Roman legend. He was said to have been the son of King Capys of Dardania and Themiste, daughter of Ilus, who was son of Tros. He is most famous as the father of Aeneas and for his treatment in Virgil's Aeneid. Anchises' brother was Acoetes, father of the priest Laocoon.He was a mortal lover of the goddess Aphrodite (or in Roman mythology, the lover of Venus). One version is that Aphrodite pretended to be a Phrygian princess and seduced him. She later revealed herself and informed him that they would have a son named Aeneas. Aphrodite had warned him that if he boasted of the affair, he would be blasted by the thunderbolt of Zeus. He did not heed her warning and was struck with a thunderbolt, which in different versions either blinds him or kills him. The principal early narrative of Aphrodite's seduction of Anchises and the birth of Aeneas is the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite. According to the Bibliotheca, Anchises and Aphrodite had another son, Lyrus, who died childless. He later had a mortal wife named Eriopis, according to the scholiasts, and he is credited with other children beside Aeneas and Lyrus. Homer, in the Iliad, mentions a daughter named Hippodameia, their eldest ("the darling of her father and mother"), who married her cousin Alcathous.

After the defeat of Troy in the Trojan War, the elderly Anchises was carried from the burning city by his son Aeneas, accompanied by Aeneas' wife Creusa, who died in the escape attempt, and small son Ascanius. The subject is depicted in several paintings, including a famous version by Federico Barocci in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. The rescue is also mentioned in a speech in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar when Cassius attempts to persuade Brutus to murder Caesar. Anchises himself died and was buried in Sicily many years later. Aeneas later visited Hades and saw his father again in the Elysian Fields.Homer's Iliad mentions another Anchises, a wealthy native of Sicyon in Greece and father of Echepolus.

Aphrodisias (; Ancient Greek: Ἀφροδισιάς, translit. Aphrodisiás) was a small ancient Greek Hellenistic city in the historic Caria cultural region of western Anatolia, Turkey. It is located near the modern village of Geyre, about 100 km (62 mi) east/inland from the coast of the Aegean Sea, and 230 km (140 mi) southeast of İzmir.

Aphrodisias was named after Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, who had here her unique cult image, the Aphrodite of Aphrodisias. According to the Suda, a Byzantine encyclopedic compilation, before the city became known as Aphrodisias (c.3rd century BCE) it had three previous names: Lelégōn Pólis (Λελέγων πόλις, "City of the Leleges"), Megálē Pólis (Μεγάλη Πόλις, "Great City"), and Ninóē (Νινόη).Sometime before 640, in the Late Antiquity period when it was within the Byzantine Empire, the city was renamed Stauroúpolis (Σταυρούπολις, "City of the Cross").In 2017 it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list.

Aphrodite is the eleventh studio album by Australian singer Kylie Minogue, released on 5 July 2010 by Parlophone. Beginning in early 2009, the singer met with British singer-songwriter Nerina Pallot to begin recording sessions for a new album. Although successful at first, the sessions later became unproductive; Minogue then began working with British electronic music producer Stuart Price, who became the executive producer of the album. The two collaborated with various producers and writers on the album, including Jake Shears, Calvin Harris, Sebastian Ingrosso and Pascal Gabriel. Aphrodite follows a musical approach largely similar to Minogue's previous albums and is primarily a dance-pop and disco record. It draws influences from various dance-based genres including electropop, hi-NRG, club and rave music.

Upon its release, Aphrodite was met with generally positive reviews from music critics, many of whom complimented it as a return to form for Minogue. However, critics were divided on its production; many felt Price's production helped make the album cohesive, while some felt it made the album sound too similar to Minogue's previous work and lacked innovation. Commercially, Aphrodite was a success. In Minogue's native country Australia, it peaked at number two on the Australian Albums chart, and was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association. In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at number one on the UK Albums chart, earning Minogue the Guinness World Record for achieving the most consecutive decades with top five albums in the United Kingdom. The British Phonographic Industry certified Aphrodite platinum. The album also achieved strong charting internationally, reaching the top-five in countries like Belgium, France, Greece, Spain and Switzerland. It became Minogue's second highest-charting album in the United States by peaking at number 19 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Four singles were released from Aphrodite. Its lead single "All the Lovers" was a commercial success, peaking at number three in the United Kingdom and reaching the top ten in numerous countries like Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. In Australia, it narrowly missed the top ten by peaking at number 13 on the singles chart. Subsequent singles "Get Outta My Way", "Better than Today", and "Put Your Hands Up (If You Feel Love)" generally underperformed on the charts, causing Minogue to express disappointment in her label. In the United States, all four singles released from the album peaked atop the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart. To further promote the album, Minogue embarked on the successful Aphrodite: Les Folies Tour in 2011.

Aphrodite Glacier (68°47′S 64°32′W) is a glacier 15 nautical miles (28 km) long flowing north to the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula 3 nautical miles (6 km) west of Victory Nunatak. The lower portion of the feature was first plotted by W.L.G. Joerg from aerial photographs taken by Sir Hubert Wilkins in December 1928 and by Lincoln Ellsworth in November 1935. The glacier was subsequently photographed by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition in December 1947 (Trimetrogon air photography) and surveyed by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in December 1958 and November 1960. It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after Aphrodite, the goddess of love in Greek mythology.

Ares (; Ancient Greek: Ἄρης, Áres [árɛːs]) is the Greek god of war. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, the son of Zeus and Hera. In Greek literature, he often represents the physical or violent and untamed aspect of war, in contrast to his sister, the armored Athena, whose functions as a goddess of intelligence include military strategy and generalship.The Greeks were ambivalent toward Ares: although he embodied the physical valor necessary for success in war, he was a dangerous force, "overwhelming, insatiable in battle, destructive, and man-slaughtering." His sons Phobos (Fear) and Deimos (Terror) and his lover, or sister, Enyo (Discord) accompanied him on his war chariot. In the Iliad, his father Zeus tells him that he is the god most hateful to him. An association with Ares endows places and objects with a savage, dangerous, or militarized quality. His value as a war god is placed in doubt: during the Trojan War, Ares was on the losing side, while Athena, often depicted in Greek art as holding Nike (Victory) in her hand, favoured the triumphant Greeks.Ares plays a relatively limited role in Greek mythology as represented in literary narratives, though his numerous love affairs and abundant offspring are often alluded to. When Ares does appear in myths, he typically faces humiliation. He is well known as the lover of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who was married to Hephaestus, god of craftsmanship. The most famous story related to Ares and Aphrodite shows them exposed to ridicule through the wronged husband's device.The counterpart of Ares among the Roman gods is Mars, who as a father of the Roman people was given a more important and dignified place in ancient Roman religion as a guardian deity. During the Hellenization of Latin literature, the myths of Ares were reinterpreted by Roman writers under the name of Mars. Greek writers under Roman rule also recorded cult practices and beliefs pertaining to Mars under the name of Ares. Thus in the classical tradition of later Western art and literature, the mythology of the two figures later became virtually indistinguishable.

Deimos (Ancient Greek: Δεῖμος, pronounced [dêːmos], meaning “dread”) is the god of terror in Greek mythology. He was a son of Ares and Aphrodite, and the twin brother of Phobos; Deimos served to represent the feelings of dread that befell those in the midst of battle, while Phobos personified feelings of fear and panic. Like Phobos, Deimos served as one of Ares’ attendants, and the two of them would often accompany their father as he rode into battle in his chariot, alongside Enyo, goddess of war and bloodshed, and Eris, goddess of strife. Deimos, the smaller of Mars’ two moons, is named after this mythological figure. The god’s Roman equivalent was Formido or Metus.

In Greek mythology, Eros (UK: , US: ; Greek: Ἔρως, "Desire") is the Greek god of sensual love and desire. His Roman counterpart was Cupid ("desire"). Some myths make him a primordial god, while in other myths, he is the son of Aphrodite. He is one of the winged love gods, Erotes.

Hephaestus (; eight spellings; Greek: Ἥφαιστος Hēphaistos) is the Greek god of blacksmiths, metalworking, carpenters, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metallurgy, fire, and volcanoes. Hephaestus' Roman equivalent is Vulcan. In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was either the son of Zeus and Hera or he was Hera's parthenogenous child. He was cast off Mount Olympus, by his mother because of his deformity or, in another account, by Zeus for protecting Hera from his advances.As a smithing god, Hephaestus made all the weapons of the gods in Olympus. He served as the blacksmith of the gods, and was worshipped in the manufacturing and industrial centers of Greece, particularly Athens. The cult of Hephaestus was based in Lemnos. Hephaestus' symbols are a smith's hammer, anvil, and a pair of tongs.

In Greek mythology, Hermaphroditus or Hermaphroditos ( (listen); Ancient Greek: Ἑρμαφρόδιτος) was the son of Aphrodite and Hermes. According to Ovid, he was born a remarkably handsome boy with whom the water nymph Salmacis fell in love and prayed to be united forever. A god, in answer to her prayer, merged their two forms into one and transformed them into an androgynous form. His name is compounded of his parents' names, Hermes and Aphrodite. He was one of the Erotes.

Because Hermaphroditus was a son of Hermes, and consequently a great-grandson of Atlas, sometimes he is called Atlantiades (Greek: Ατλαντιάδης). Hermaphroditus' father, Hermes, was also called Atlantiades because his mother, Maia was the daughter of Atlas.

Paphos (Greek: Πάφος [ˈpafos]; Turkish: Baf) is a coastal city in the southwest of Cyprus and the capital of Paphos District. In antiquity, two locations were called Paphos: Old Paphos, today at Kouklia, and New Paphos.The current city of Paphos lies on the Mediterranean coast, about 50 km (30 mi) west of Limassol (the biggest port on the island), which has an A6 highway connection. Paphos International Airport is the country's second-largest airport. The city has a subtropical-Mediterranean climate, with the mildest temperatures on the island.

Paphos is included in the official UNESCO list of cultural and natural treasures of the world's heritage for its spectacular ancient remains, and was selected as a European Capital of Culture for 2017, along with Aarhus.

Phobos (Ancient Greek: Φόβος, pronounced [pʰóbos], meaning "fear") is the personification of fear in Greek mythology. He is the offspring of Aphrodite and Ares. He was known for accompanying Ares into battle along with the ancient war goddess Enyo, the goddess of discord Eris (both sisters of Ares), and Phobos' twin brother Deimos (terror).

In Classical Greek mythology, Phobos is more of a personification of the fear brought by war and does not appear as a character in any myths. Timor or Timorus is his Roman equivalent. In Roman mythology, he has also been referred to as Pavor.

Pisces (♓️) (; Ancient Greek: Ἰχθύες Ikhthyes) is the twelfth astrological sign in the Zodiac. It spans 330° to 360° of celestial longitude. Under the tropical zodiac the sun transits this area between February 19 and March 20. In Sidereal astrology, the Sun currently transits the constellation of Pisces from approximately March 12 to April 18. In classical interpretations, the symbol of the fish is derived from the ichthyocentaurs, who aided Aphrodite when she was born from the sea.According to some tropical astrologers, the current astrological age is the Age of Pisces, while others maintain that it is the Age of Aquarius.

In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the twelve Olympians are the major deities of the Greek pantheon, commonly considered to be Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes, and either Hestia or Dionysus. They were called 'Olympians' because, according to tradition, they resided on Mount Olympus.

Although Hades was a major ancient Greek god, and was the brother of the first generation of Olympians (Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia), he resided in the underworld, far from Olympus, and thus was not usually considered to be one of the Olympians.

Besides the twelve Olympians, there were many other cultic groupings of twelve gods.

Venus is the name of two fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The first, originally based on the goddess Venus (Aphrodite) from Roman and Greek mythology, was retconned to actually be a siren that only resembles the goddess. The second is stated to be the true goddess, who now wishes only to be referred to by her Greek name, Aphrodite. The similarities between the two characters are a point of conflict in the comics.

The Aphrodite of Milos (Greek: Αφροδίτη της Μήλου, Aphroditi tis Milou), generally known as the Venus de Milo, is an ancient Greek statue and one of the most famous works of ancient Greek sculpture. Initially it was attributed to the sculptor Praxiteles, however from an inscription that was on its plinth, the statue is thought to be the work of Alexandros of Antioch. Created sometime between 130 and 100 BC, the statue is believed to depict Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty; however, some scholars claim it is the sea-goddess Amphitrite, venerated on Milos. It is a marble sculpture, slightly larger than life size at 203 cm (6 ft 8 in) high. Part of an arm and the original plinth were lost following its discovery. It is currently on permanent display at the Louvre Museum in Paris. The statue is named after the Greek island of Milos, where it was discovered.

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